Bahamas - Days 1-4.

It's been awhile, but with very spotty internet and being busy there's not been time to catch up.

We left North Palm Beach at 0500, last Thursday. There were initially 5 boats in our group, but we soon picked up a couple more once we got through the inlet to the Atlantic Ocean. We arrived at West End, Bahamas at 14:30 (2:30). The weather and sea conditions could NOT have been better!  1-2' seas and enough breeze to be comfortable all the way across. (We have come to miss the white canvas on Ju-Li IV. Maggie Mae has black canvas and there's a big difference in heat absorption, as you can imagine.) The group of boats we were traveling with stay in touch with one another on VHF channel 69.  Having a spare VHF on board, we were able to listen in and still monitor the hailing channel (16). There was quite a bit of useless chatter, but several boats were trolling for fish and at least 2 were successful. One caught a good sized dolphin (mahi-mahi) and another a sailfish. The dolphin was cleaned, filleted and refrigerated. The sailfish was released. Come to think of it, we never did see the pictures of the sailfish. Hmmmm.... 

We stayed at Old Bahama Bay marina in West End. Their complex consists of a small marina operation, beachfront property with pool, restaurants/bar and about 10-15 condo style facilities. A nice place. We spent some time at the beach, playing in the water and on the kayaks and paddle boards. Did a little snorkeling, although not much to see. Had good seafood for dinner, and retired to the boat. 04:30 wake up had made us all a little tired. Still watching Breaking Bad. Interesting, albeit very dark...

Our view from our slip at Old Bahama Bay Marina.

Jim trying his hand at paddle boarding. 

Tim's turn. Joe going under to snorkel.

Blackened grouper. Yum!

Friday morning we waited for the gas dock to open and got in line for fuel. We were probably underway by 08:45. Our destination Friday-Great Sale Cay (pronounced key). Three of the five original boats that came over with us did not have to stop for customs, as they had been to the Bahamas within the past month, and were cleared. We and one other boat (named 'Go') needed to clear customs, so we stayed overnight and left together Friday morning.  About 2:30, we decided to drop anchor and do a little snorkeling. Both boats stopped. We cooked and ate hotdogs/polish sausages and jumped in the water.  As we were traveling with the wind, there was no breeze, and believe me, it was hot! The water was refreshing!  We played for about an hour then got underway again. Go headed to the north end of the cay and we headed to a cove on the south end. There were 5-7 other boats already anchored when we arrived. Getting the anchor set was no problem and I got busy making dinner while the guys did guy stuff. Thank goodness for our generator! Makes food prep easy and being able to run the AC when we need to is the best!

Saw my first waterspout while waiting for fuel Friday morning.

A little sparrow hitching a ride. So strange to see out in the middle of miles and miles of water.

Close to where we snorkeled Friday.

Jim and Joe 

Joe

Large ship on the horizon. 

The Captain, working on his tan.

Saturday we traveled to Green Turtle Cay and stayed at Bluff House Marina. We remained there 2 nights. While there we played on the beach, rented a golf cart on Sunday to take us around the cay, down to Historic New Plymouth for ice cream and sightseeing. The cay is small, as are many of the islands in the Bahamas. There were two ducks living at the marina, aptly named Port and Starboard. We made friends with them with old, moldy hotdog buns. They came back Monday morning for breakfast. We needed fuel before taking off, so Tim made the necessary arrangements.  Fortunately we were close enough to the fuel pumps that we didn't have to move the boat to take on fuel. Unfortunately the pumps were not working very well and taking on 100 gallons took about an hour. More time to feed wheat thins to the ducks. :) 

Heading into Green Turtle Cay.

Entering Bluff Harbor.

Sunday around noon. Most streets wide enough for 2 golf carts or 1 car. 

Can you say 'retired'? Bluff Harbor private beach. Jim has sunburned knees as a result of this little nap.

My view. Sorry about the knee :(

South end of cay.

Port and Starboard

Jim in the dinghy.

Tim's turn.

Joe at the 'helm'. Isn't the water amazingly clear? And this is in the marina!

One day while resting at Bluff Harbor, Tim decided to wet a line. He caught a fish aptly named a sergeant major fish. No kidding! Anyway, it wasn't a keeper by any means, so he decided to throw it back. Problem is he tried to throw it through a closed eisenglass. Guess they were so clean he couldn't see them. It made for much jocularity!!

Tim's fish.

Day 5, Hoping to depart tomorrow

Its mid-day Wed. The UPS truck is scheduled to arrive by 4pm, hopefully carrying the transmission cooler we need for the starboard engine. The weather continues to look promising enough for an early morning departure. There are 3, maybe 4 other boats crossing to the Bahamas tomorrow, so we should look like a caravan. That is, if we all travel at relatively the same speed, of course...

The meeting with Customs and Immigration went smoothly, once we found it. Since we had a rental car for 24 hours, we ate 3 meals out, (2 at iHop), did a little shopping and not much sightseeing. Tim said we'll get a better look at Rush's house when we pass by Peanut Island, on the way to the inlet, in the morning. Jim and I did some laundry. All 3 of the guys installed new tubes in our bicycles. I made banana bread and took a loaf to our new friends, John and Barbara. She brought us pinto beans the night before to eat with our Chipotle dinner. Jim finished the stairs yesterday. They look fantastic! 

No more varnish. Completely sanded and oiled.

Had to include this picture of Elisha enjoying his birthday cupcake at Great Grandma June's house. She loves It when his family comes to visit!

This picture makes me laugh out loud. Such fun!

Jeremiah helping his Papa in one of their gardens

Working on replacing tire tubes. Tim's been working on his tan ;).

Jim, talking to Ruth. You know, I think they must like one another =D. When Tim and Joe finished this bike, Tim left to take the rental (grey Fiesta) back, Jim and Joe did bike number 2. 

Found a really small plunger that we need for the aft cabin shower drain periodically.  We almost got it to stick on Joe's head. Makes for a good photo op, regardless. He's a good sport!

So, assuming our part comes, we depart in the morning between 0500-0600. We will likely be out of touch, since cellular rates are high. I will hopefully get lots of pictures and load them up whe we are back in US waters/range. Please pray for our crossing, our health, Maggie Mae's mechanical well being and good seas! Thank you and we'll see you when we return!!

Day 4 at N.P.B.

Same location...different day...

Here's hoping that all of you that celebrate Easter had a very enjoyable one.  Sunday mid-afternoon I received the following two pictures from home. Jeremy said, and I quote 'Blasted kid won the tee game on his very first try. I tried a hundred times!'. I responded 'I knew he was a genius'. I might be a little partial......

This little guy is celebrating his first birthday tomorrow!! Happy Birthday Little Man!!! Miss them both. Thanks for indulging me.

Here Tim and Joe are patiently waiting the arrival of a shuttle van to take us all to the mall this morning. The couple that we hope to travel to the Bahamas with told us about the shuttle, since they have taken advantage of it while here. Really nice service. Barbara made the call to reserve the van today. We tagged along.

After visiting Radio Shack for a single side band radio, we stopped at the food court for lunch. Right before calling the the van to come fetch us, the guys stopped in for a little ice cream.

One of the things we have needed to do was pull out the entire anchor rope to check it out, check its 'tie-down', check the locker, clean the locker, etc.. Well, today was the day.  As it was almost all the way out, we had to stop so Joe could perform some rope maintenance. A little background is required here. Before we bought Maggie Mae, Tim paid to have a survey performed on the boat. One of the items needing attention was a soft spot on the bow deck. We paid to have this 'spot' fixed. It appears to all of us that the method of repair was to drill holes in the deck and shoot fiberglass in the holes to firm it up. This soft spot was an area roughly 2'x3', right under the anchor windlass, therefore right over the locker where the anchor rope is kept, coiled nicely. All well and good right? Sure. That is until the repairmen don't care about their work and let the soft fiberglass resin fall through the holes, landing on anything and everything inside the locker. Yes, including the rope.  And, what happens to fiberglass resin as it cures? Right. It becomes very hard and is nearly impossible to remove. Just ask Joe. The fresh water fill is also in the area where the deck was repaired. Right after we bought the boat, we had to replace the actual through-hull fill sleeve, because the water pipe that attaches to it had been separated and damaged enough not to be fixable. We think another case of a repair gone bad by poor workmanship. Below is Tim pulling the anchor rope, while I operate the windlass and Joe works to free the rope from inside. Jim and our new friend John watch from the walkway. By the way this is the ONLY time Jim sat down today. I didn't get any more pictures, but he spent at least 5 hours sanding on the back teak stairs. A continuation of the job he started yesterday. They will be amazing when he is done. We feel a little bad that he joined us a week ago today and the weather has kept us from our journey. Poor guy. We keep putting him to work! We also did a little more boat waxing, a little more painting of numbers, etc.....

Here Joe is working on removing resin from the anchor rope.

There are all types of rules and regulations for traveling in and out of the U.S.  Tim is the expert, and has an appointment on Wednesday regarding some type of decal we need when we come back from the Bahamas. The place is about 4 miles away. Rather than ride a bike, or pay $28 for a taxi, he decided to get a rental car for 24 hrs. That way we can do more grocery shopping, he can drive to his meeting, and hey, maybe we can do a little site seeing. We've seen Rush Limbaugh's home via aerial satellite photo. It's not too far from where we are. 

N. Palm Beach, Day 3...

Well, we're still here. Not much has changed regarding our boat and the weather forecast.  On the bright side, we (mostly the guys) have been busy catching up on all the little things that need to be done. All of them, aesthetic in a nature.  Tim and Jim gave the starboard side of the boat a good scrubbing yesterday. Jim worked on black scuff marks. All 3 of the guys got some sun yesterday. 

When we got up this morning the temperature was 65 degrees, and it was cloudy. Been that way most of the day.  Tim began a fiberglass repair on a ding in the swim platform that was there when we bought the boat.  Here he is painting the numbers '38' on the starboard side. The port side numbers were painted in Fort Myers.

During a break earlier today we watched this guy filet several, very large fish.  None of us knew what they were, and Jim decided he wanted to go have a look.  He didn't find out much, as he said there was a language barrier.

Joe is hard at work waxing the boat.

Here is Jim working hard.  He took it upon himself to get our teak ladder from the aft deck to the swim platform up to snuff. It had been varnished in the past and most of the varnish was either worn off or in big flakes. He thought it would look better if it was cleaned and sanded and oiled.  So far, he's almost done cleaning it.  Been at it at least 2 hours today!  Thanks, Jim!

We're probably headed back to La Bamba tonight for dinner. Had spaghetti in the boat last night. And a big breakfast this morning. It's always nice when we get to go out to eat!

NORTH PALM BEACH

Stayed in Ft Lauderdale until Friday morning.  The heat exchanger was repaired(kind of) and reinstalled.  The repairman sealed several leaking tubes and told Tim that while it would last awhile, he might want to order a new one.  Since we had a rental car until Thursday afternoon we were able to go out to eat and to West Marine, Lowes, etc.  The guys got the new plastic bench seat 'reinforced' with wood. You see, I guess it isn't really designed for a couple of grown men/women to sit on. A couple of 48" 1x3s later and it should hold its shape now. A couple of windows were caulked/sealed, where leaks had sprung up, and other odds and ends were taken care of. 

Friday, we were underway a little after 0800. Jim's first experience on the ICW. Tim quickly broke him in with his first 1hr shift being right after Tims. Jim is a quick study and as long as he doesn't get distracted by lizards, or eagles, will be a great addition to 'the crew'!  Tim had touched base, through a AGLCA website, with another couple who are wanting to cross to the Bahamas. They just happen to be staying at the North Palm Beach marina, approximately 55 miles north of Ft Lauderdale.  Since it's always a good idea to cross open water with another boat, Tim decided we would head there and wait out this 'unusually bad' (according to the locals) Gulf Stream weather. Right now it looks like it will be at least Thursday before weather turns in our favor. But, you know what they say about weather. It can change at a moments notice, so we will be prepared to go at any time.

 Thursday nights approaching storm.

Water tower we passed several times while out and about in our rental car.

Jim's first mechanical task. Hold the door up.

Before we left Friday morning, we had fuel delivered to the dock. We tried this earlier in the week, but the boat was in a slip too far for the fuel hose to reach....AND the starboard engine was disassembled awaiting the repair and reinstall action of the heat exchanger. In other words, the boat couldn't be moved closer, SO we had to wait. Topped of both tanks before heading to North Palm Beach.

This 100'+ boat! from Jamaica was tied up on the end of the dock next to ours. Sometime overnight the bow came loose and the guys noticed it while we were preparing to move for fuel. Both Joe and Jim walked over to try and get the attention of someone inside. No one responded, but another boat owner got it secured until someone from the office could be notified, when they arrived at work.

A 'fixer-upper'!

It took about 9 hours to get to N Palm Beach. Although we do travel slowly in an effort to get the best fuel efficiency possible, we were slowed this day by the number of bridges we had to navigate under.  I'm guessing 25+.  Not all required an opening for us, but the majority of those that did were timed on the hour/half hour or :15/:45 hour. They are supposed to be timed so that if you travel at just the right speed, you can get through them painlessly. In most cases this was true, but unusually high winds and tides AND some unusually rude/inexperienced captains made it less enjoyable. 

Here are several of the bridges we passed under.

For Jessica, and all cat lovers out there 😍

Traffic near one bridge. Oh, and remember that rude captain? Yep, that's him right in front of us (when his place in line was right behind us earlier...).

The entrance to North Palm Beach Marina on the left. We didn't have to go through the bridge beyond!

Not too many restaurants near by. We broke out a bike for Joe to ride, while the rest of us walked. 

Joe and Jim at La Bamba Mexican restaurant. Good food! We were all pretty full when we left.

IF we do anything exciting and new in the next few days, I'll be sure and let you know.  

A special note. The crew of Maggie Mae is now being watched over, from heaven, by one of our most faithful followers. We love you Pidge!